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Explore 2424 quotes by people from United Kingdom

Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.

Thomas Campbell

Lochiels's Warning

More information about this quote

Topic

Old age Approaching death

Speaker

Wizard

Author

Thomas Campbell

Source

Lochiels's Warning

Language

English

Time

1802 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Campbell, Thomas. Lochiel's Warning. c. 1802.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

William Wordsworth

The World Is Too Much with Us

More information about this quote

Topic

Materialism Industrial revolution

Author

William Wordsworth

Source

The World Is Too Much with Us

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1807 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, William. Poems, in Two Volumes. Vol. 1, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, 1807, pt. 1, no. 18, I. 1.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, William. "The world is too much with us." William Wordsworth: The Major Works: including The Prelude, edited by Stephen Gill. Oxford University Press, 2008.

We cross our bridges as we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and the presumption that once our eyes watered.

Tom Stoppard

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More information about this quote

Topic

Burning bridges Cynicism The human condition

Author

Tom Stoppard

Source

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Medium

Play

Language

English

Time

1966 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. 24 Aug. 1966, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland, act 2.

Current Citation

Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Grove Press, 2017, act 2.

Ornament is but the guilèd shore
To a most dangerous sea.

William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice

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Read The Merchant of Venice at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Looks are deceiving Temptation Appearance vs. reality

Speaker

Bassanio

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

The Merchant of Venice

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1598 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. c. 1598, The Theatre, London, England, UK, act 3, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "The Merchant of Venice." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 2.

A Woman is a foreign land,
Of which, though there he settle young,
A man will ne'er quite understand
The customs, politics, and tongue.

Coventry Patmore

The Angel in the House

More information about this quote

Topic

Gender relations Men and women

Author

Coventry Patmore

Source

The Angel in the House

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Patmore, Coventry. The Angel in the House. Self-published, 1854, bk. 2, canto 9, prelude 2.

By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy.

William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost

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Read Love's Labour's Lost at The Folger Shakespeare Library

More information about this quote

Topic

Melancholy Broken heart Love

Speaker

Lord Berowne

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Love's Labour's Lost

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1597 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost. 1597, England, UK, act 4, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Love's Labour's Lost." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 3.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

L.P. Hartley

The Go-Between

More information about this quote

Topic

The past Past and present

Author

L.P. Hartley

Source

The Go-Between

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hartley, L. P. The Go-Between. Hamish Hamilton, 1953, preface.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth

More information about this quote

Topic

Rainbows

Author

William Wordsworth

Source

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1807 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wordsworth, William. Poems, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.

Current Citation

Wordsworth, William. "My heart leaps up when I behold." William Wordsworth: The Major Works: including The Prelude, edited by Stephen Gill. Oxford University Press, 2008.

The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

Lord Chesterfield

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning

Author

Lord Chesterfield

Source

Letters of Lord Chesterfield

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1746 1740s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Stanhope, Philip Dormer. Letter to his son. 4 Oct. 1746.

Secrets had an immense attraction to him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.

Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows

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Read The Wind in the Willows at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Secrets

Author

Kenneth Grahame

Source

The Wind in the Willows

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Methuen, 1908, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Barnes & Noble, 2013, ch. 11.

Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.

Robert Graves

The Persian Version

Read this poem at allpoetry.com

More information about this quote

Topic

Different perspectives

Author

Robert Graves

Source

The Persian Version

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Graves, Robert. "The Persian Version." Poems 1938-1945: Satires and Grotesques. Cassell & Company, 1946, I. 1.

Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid, and works its effect itself unseen.

Joshua Reynolds

More information about this quote

Topic

Subtlety Art

Speaker

Joshua Reynolds

Source

Discourses on Art

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1774 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Reynolds, Joshua. "Discourse VI." 10 Dec. 1774, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England, UK. Lecture.

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

John Churton Collins

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth Philosophy Philosophers

Author

John Churton Collins

Source

Some Maxims and Reflections The English Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1900 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collins, Churton. "Some Maxims and Reflections." The English Review, c. 1914.

An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

More information about this quote

Topic

The devil

Author

Samuel Butler (Novelist)

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Samuel Butler. The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, edited by Henry Festing Jones. A. C. Fifield, 1912, ch. 14.

The happiness of life, on the contrary, is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Improvisatore

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness The little things

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Source

The Improvisatore

Language

English

Time

1828 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Improvisatore. c. 1828.

Current Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Improvisatore." Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems, edited by William Keach. Penguin Classics, 1997.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.... Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.

Walter Bagehot

More information about this quote

Topic

Conformity Custom and convention

Author

Walter Bagehot

Source

The Character of Sir Robert Peel

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Bagehot, Walter. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel." National Review, July 1856.

Current Citation

Bagehot, Walter. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel." The Best of Bagehot. Hamish Hamilton, 1993.

A mighty pain to love it is,
And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley

Read this poem at virginia.edu

More information about this quote

Topic

Unrequited love Love

Author

Abraham Cowley

Source

Gold Anacreontiques

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1633 1630s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cowley, Abraham. "Anacreontiques." Poems written by A. Cowley. London: Humphrey Moseley, 1656, no. 7.

Even such is time that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust!

Sir Walter Raleigh

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of time Relentlessness of time Time

Author

Sir Walter Raleigh

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1618 1610s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Raleigh, Walter. Even Such is Time. London, c. 1618, I. 1.

Current Citation

Raleigh, Walter. "Even Such is Time." Great Short Poems. Dover Publications, 2000, I. 1.

Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of life The human condition

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

More information about this quote

Topic

Politics is downstream of culture

Author

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1703 1700s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Fletcher, Andrew. Letter to the Marquis of Montrose. 1 Dec. 1703.

Current Citation

Fletcher, Andrew. "An Account of Conversation concerning a Right Regulation of Government for the Good of Mankind. In a Letter to the Marquis of Montrose." Andrew Fletcher: Political Works, edited by John Robertson. Cambridge University Press, 1997.